by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Disgraced ex-governor Mark Sanford cleared the first hurdle of his political comeback bid on Tuesday night, earning a spot in a South Carolina runoff for the GOP nomination in his former congressional district.

The winner of the April 2 GOP runoff will face Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a political novice with a famous last name. She is the older sister of comedian Stephen Colbert and the director of business development at a former naval shipyard.

Colbert Busch easily defeated perennial candidate Ben Frasier to win her party's nomination. The Associated Press declared Sanford had earned a spot in the runoff a couple of hours after polls closed.

Sanford, whose extramarital affair in 2009 derailed his political career, was easily the top vote-getter among 16 Republicans running to replace Tim Scott in the U.S. House. There was a tight race for the second spot in the GOP runoff between ex-Charleston County Council member Curtis Bostic and state Sen. Larry Grooms.

South Carolina's 1st District, a Republican stronghold, is centered in Charleston and runs along the Atlantic Coast from Hilton Head Island to Georgetown County. Scott, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate in January, won a second House term last year by more than a 2 to 1 margin. Republican Mitt Romney carried the district in the presidential election by 18 percentage points.

Sanford has high name recognition in the district, which he represented for six years before being elected governor in 2002, but the crowded GOP field made it difficult for him to go over the 50% required to avoid a runoff. His final vote total Tuesday night could provide clues on whether he will have an easy or difficult time in the next round of balloting.

Katon Dawson, a former state Republican Party chairman, said he believes voters will be able to get past Sanford's infidelity. He said the concern he hears is that Sanford lied and covered up the affair. Sanford disappeared for several days in 2009, telling his staff he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail when in reality he was visiting his mistress in Argentina.

"It's still his to lose and someone else's to win," Dawson said. "I'm not condoning the affair but I think the question is will voters forgive him for not telling the truth."

As he cast his ballot earlier Tuesday, Sanford said it was a "treat and a blessing " to be facing voters again.

"We all hope for a second chance. I believe in a God of second chances," said Sanford, who is now divorced and engaged to Maria Belen Chapur, his former mistress.

Colbert Busch vowed to be the voice of all people in the 1st District, regardless of party affiliation. She also had a special message to women voters.

"Our history tells us South Carolina has sent only two women to Washington," she said. "Perhaps that is why the voices of thousands of mothers and fathers living paycheck to paycheck are often drowned out by other priorities and agendas. When I was a young, single mother I personally knew that feeling. I am ready to speak up for those voices."

Democrats have high hopes for Colbert Busch, who has done well with fundraising and grass-roots organizing. Dawson said it's clear that the Democratic Party will make Sanford the issue if he is the GOP nominee, since it is a narrative that the Republican himself injected in the special election.

The concern for Republicans is what happens if the runoff is too damaging to their candidates, which might give Colbert Busch an opening in the May 7 general election.

"The people of South Carolina are tired of this Congress' extreme ideology and dysfunction," said Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Elizabeth Colbert Busch offers a breath of fresh air, standing on the side of sensible solutions that strengthen the middle class."

Katie Prill, a spokeswoman for the House GOP campaign committee, said Colbert Busch has "liberal-Obama policies" that are "dramatically out-of-step with South Carolina values."

"Republicans can rest assured that our nominee will champion pro-growth policies that will bring jobs back to South Carolina."

Special elections are typically low turnout affairs that bring out only the most committed voters. Democrats have shown since 2008 that they can run winning campaigns in these short races - in New York, Mississippi, Louisiana and Illinois - where Republicans previously held congressional seats.

Gibbs Knotts, chairman of the political science department at the College of Charleston, said that kind of success would require Republicans to make mistakes and Colbert Busch to have the resources to stay competitive. In the run-up to the primary, Stephen Colbert helped his beloved big sister "Lulu" raise campaign funds in New York and Charleston.

"A very smart, well-run campaign could win, but it's still a pretty big hill to climb for Democrats," Knotts said.